Henri Matisse wrote about his “Gesammtkunstwerk”,
la Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, France:
…
“This is how simple colours can effect the innermost feelings,
their impact being all the more forceful through their simplicity.
Blue, for instance, accompanied by the radiation
of its complementary hues, affects feeling like
a vigorous stroke of a gong.
The same is true of yellow and red, and the artist should be able
to play on them as required. In the chapel,
my main goal was to find a balance between a light surface
and colour with a solid wall of black-on-white line drawing.
For me, this chapel is the achievement of an entire life’s work,
the outcome of tremendous, difficult, sincere effort.
This is not work I chose, but rather work for which
I was chosen by fate at the end of my road,
one that I pursue through my research.
The chapel provided me with an opportunity
to set it down by combining its various features.”

…
“One reaches the creative state through conscious work”

“Preparing the work itself means first nourishing
one’s feeling through studies representing a certain analogy
with the work; it is then that the choise of elements can be made.
It is these studies that enable the painter to give
free rein to his subconscious…
After a certain point, it is no longer up to me, it is a revelation:
all I do is give myself up.”
…
Henri Matisse From: Chapelle du Rosaire
of the Dominican Nuns of Vence, by Henri Matisse, Vence 1996